September 02, 2014

I wanted to share a few images I took over the weekend during my visit to Floret Flower Farm in the Skagit Valley in Washington. I had the opportunuty to stop by during dahlia harvest because of my generous friend Georgianna who is a kindred flower lover. She introduced me to Erin Benzakein, the founder of Floret which is both a flower farm and a floral design studio. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Erin as she has this contagious positive energy and entrepreneurial spirit. She and her husband are incredibly hard workers. I got to witness them for a few hours as they harvested the dahlias, filling their pick up truck again and again and again. As I walked around their farm I could see their tireless effort to grow new varieties, investigate other planting opportunites in their green houses and care for this oasis in the valley. Erin offers some fantastic looking workshops at her farm, you can check them out here. You can also follow along with Erin on her incredible instagram feed here.

August 29, 2014

I hope you have had a great summer or winter for my friends in the southern hemisphere! It has been a busy few months for me with my family. I am looking forward to getting back into a routine in the next few weeks with school starting again. Time to get back working in my studio more consistantly. I have some projects starting up in the coming months that I will share with you here or on my instagram feed.

In Novemenber I will be heading down to the Baja in Mexico to teach a styling and photography workshop with Ace Camps. I am a huge fan of Ace Camps and have taken a few through the past four years. I absolutely love learning in a concentrated focused way removed from my daily life! I always come home recharged creatively and with many new skills up my sleeve. It is an amazing way to travel, see new places and learn with a group of like minded creatives.

In Mexico we will be immersed in the culture, eating local food in fabulous settings and traveling around this beautiful part of the earth documenting our experiences. Of course we need to work as well, like styling and shooting a Fiesta scene in a gorgeous hotel where we are staying in Cabo San Lucas. I'm thinking pinatas, papel picados, tropical fruits and of course there will be fresh flowers! We will also be staying in the unique town of Todos Santos where we will be styling and shooting some pretty awesome interiors as well as picnicing and photographing on a white sand beach. Creative work at its best!!! You can learn about the workshop over at Ace Camps where all of the details are shared.

May 05, 2014

We are having our first book party for "Decorate with Flowers" in Vancouver this Friday, May 9th. If you live in Vancouver and can make it, I would love to meet you! The party is being held at The Cross at 1198 Homer Street from 3-5pm. If you have not been to The Cross, you will not be dissapointed as it is a beautiful and unique home decor store. One of my favourites for sure. I will be making bouquets earlier in the day that will be for sale at the event. Please RSVP here.

I thought you may enjoy some more outtakes from "Decorate with Flowers"...

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to RSVP here if you can come to the party at The Cross!

March 04, 2014

Last spring I was busy painting some watercolor patterns for Cloud9 Fabrics. They had contacted me after seeing some of my work online and I was thrilled to work with them. They were interested in printing some of my watercolors on an organic cotton voile. Voile is a very light and very soft fabric. It is also slightly sheer which works nicely with a watercolor pattern. Voile is beautiful for blouses, summery dresses, light weight pajamas and anything else you can dream up that needs a lighter, softer touch. When thinking about these qualities I could'nt help but be inspired by where I used to live in California, Palos Verdes inspired the collection and each pattern is named after places in P.V. The fabrics are now available in stores and we got to have some fun with them!

When the bolts of fabric arrived I couldnt believe how soft it was. I started imagining all the wonderful things that needed to be made! I am not that great of a sewer on my best days. I am ok at quilts and better at napkins! Since I wanted to branch out from the napkin, I asked some friends if they knew anyone who could help me sew some pieces. The next thing I knew I was meeting an extraordinary seamstress, Alice Hawes. Wow. This woman can sew beautifully and she is lovely to work with. I feel really lucky to have met her and she is inspiring me to roll up my sleaves and get back to my little machine. Alice has meticulously sewn everything you see here today. Thank you Alice!

Above is a little sun dress for my daughter. The dress pattern in Burda Kids 9468. We decided on "La Venta" for the dress with "Miraleste" for the trim and then we decided to line the dress with "Warm White" so that it was not too see through.

These two little friends were made using the pattern from Simplicity 1549. The bunny's body is in "Warm White", her shirt is made with "Malaga Cove" and her ears are accented with "Miraleste". For the fox we used a plain salmon colored cotton for the body and "Miraleste" for the shirt.

These cute pajama bottoms are made using a pattern from McCalls M6225. We decided on "Miraleste" with "La Venta" for the decorative bow and the wide accent cuff (which we added as it is not in the pattern).

In the same flavour I found this pattern by McCalls M6249 for some women's pj bottoms. They could easily be paired with a simple gray tshirt or tank top. We used "Malaga Cove" with "Lunada Bay" for the cuff and bow. With the voile being so lightweight these pj's are perfect for spring and summer.

Finally, we thought it would fun to try some cosmetic bags. We used a pattern out of Amy Butler's Style Stitches book. For this pattern you get to use three co-ordinating fabrics, so we chose "Malaga Cove" and "Abolone Cove" on the outside and then "Wayfarers" to line them both.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, I have been having fun thinking about a few more projects to do with these fabrics and I will share them back here soon when they are finished. You can visit here to see where my fabrics are being sold. Many of the online shops ship internationally if you are not in the US, Canada or the UK.

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Unless stated all photos in a creative mint are my original copyrighted photographs. All photo layouts are also designed by me specifically for a creative mint. Feel free to blog my photos but please link back to this page. Thank you!